This might be useful for the two rogue based characters.Hit And Run Fighter 1 + Shadow Blade means you add dex to damage twice. Once even if they're not flatfooted.
When making beatsticks, it's important that:
1. They can do damage. There are a number of ways to do this. PA + Leap Attack + Shock Trooper is the easiest, but you can also channel spells (enlightened fist, duskblade, spellsword), Stormguard warrior, Insightful Strike + Hit And Run Fighter + Shadow Blade, or even something fruity like a MultiRushing Dungeoncrasher. Doing damage is the default beatstick way to contribute. All Beatstick builds other than melee debuffers (chain trip stunners, Mass Staredown Fearlockers) and ability damage eaters (Wightblade Fell Drainers) want at least SOME kind of ability to do hp damage.
2. Defenses. Most beatsticks are horribly vulnerable to even weak save-targeters like
Dominate Person. A solid fog or even
grease or
web can completely shut down most beatsticks. Beatsticks should have some way to avoid mind-affecting effects (Steadfast Determination, Mind Blank), some way to dance through BFC effects (Freedom of Movement, free/swift/move action teleportation), and a way to bull through kill-you-lol effects (high fort save, immunities, veil of undeath), and a way to avoid dying to HP damage (high HP, Vigor, meaningful AC, Blur, Blink/Greater Blink, Displacement, Mirror Image, Initiator Counters, Contingent Effects).
3. Movement. A lot of beatsticks who have both of the above end up fighting enemies that fight at ranged, or fly, or walldive, or are ethereal, or eat a lot of weetbix every morning. This means, in order to catch them, your beatstick needs to be able to take the fight to them, as opposed to them taking the fight to you. There are a number of ways to do this, and unfortunately, they're more like a checklist than a list of options. A beatstick should be able to Fly (Overland Flight, Wings of Lolling, Open Lesser Chakra + Something Wings, Feathered Wings Graft, Desert Wind Maneuvers, etc), Move quickly (Wings of Air + Flying, Haste, Boots of Sprinting, Hustle, Teleportation), Teleport (Anklet of Teleportation, Shadow Jaunt, Boots of Big Stepping, 6th level of Horizon Walker, Dimension Hop, etc), deal with odd movement modes (burrow + spring attack is a bad hair day for a fighting-type - look into readied action stuns, trips, or immobilization - if you're in water, you better have freedom of movement+flight or a swim speed or you're SoL). A fighter should also try to be faster than the opposition, but that's hard. Even with access to polymorph or alter self, most high-str forms aren't that fast. Boots of Speed for haste, and feathered wings graft or another form of natural flight is the best way to get around the battlefield and is doable from quite low level.
4. Hitting. Lots of foes are hard to hit, either because they have high AC, reach + Large And In Charge, various illusioney ways to avoid being hit (Displacement, Mirror Image, Blink), or they teleport around like a mofo. This can seriously wreck your day. So, and in order. High AC is the perennial pain in a beatstick's rear. A way to get wraithstrike, so you hit touch AC, can make this headache a lot smaller. Boosting your to-hit by way of an attuned weapon (if you're a psywar), greater magic weapon so you can have your enhancements and your bonus, having a high str (polymorph etc), having a decent BAB (BAB is typically overpriced, though - 2 buff spells that give you +8 to hit and damage are worth more than +2 BAB), having a bard around for the song, buffs such as improvisation or divine favour or haste that add to hit... all these things help you hit AC more reliably. Reach + Large And In Charge - tumble to avoid AoOs, various maneuver-based counters. Lots of ways to avoid getting hit by AoOs, can't list them off the top of my head. Several feats and abilities and spells allow you to avoid AoOs completely. Illusions: Steadfast Perception is nice, but an AMF or a Illusion-Theft weapon is better. A dispelling weapon can be kinda nice, but caster CLs tend to be higher. Pierce Magical Concealment just allows you to straight up ignore concealment, which is awesome. Teleporting around - Dimensional Anchor is fun, and in MiC I believe it comes in weapon form. Other than that, this is one of those situations where having a decent ranged option is nice. Another option is Mage Slayer, a feat that doesn't let adjacent foes cast defensively. Make sure your AoO hits hard enough to autofail their conc check, and they're not goin' nowhere.
Neat low level trick: If you don't fight displacer beasts or casters very much, illusion-bane or -theft might be a bit much to have on your main weapon, but a +1 Illusion-bane or -theft whip or spiked chain as a secondary weapon can be a lifesaver. Artificers can also add Illusion-bane with their personal weapon augmentation infusion from level 1.
5. Wildcards. Whether it's a explosive runes nuke strapped to your chest or a Contingent Transcend Mortality or a fast-and-dirty Scroll of Body Outside Body... beatsticks are the class that benefits the most from a truly ridiculous wildcard. Casters are made of wildcards, and rogues use low-level wildcards constantly, but since beatsticks live on the edge (of their hp totals) a lot of the time, when they get in the shit, it's generally deeper than most other classes' shit, and they need something a bit more hardcore to get out of it. There are all kinds of wildcards, from the Master Alchemist brew'd potion of Giant Size to something stupid like a pocket psion with Vigor and Share Pain in the form of a spell symbiote with metamorphic transfer to triple your hp and get 300 THP per round at level 10. Find something truly awesome and keep it for a rainy day. Because the rain will come, and it's nice to save the party, even if you go down doing it. You're just cooler and bloody tougher than everyone else, those lily livered pansies. Don't ever forget that being the beatstick doesn't just mean you need to work harder to be level appropriate - it means you're bloody hardcore, and that makes you awesome. Don't ever bet against The Duke.
